Of late

The recent void of updates here is only proof that we have been up to alot.  This will catch us up a bit.  Biggest blogworthy event was for certain our annual October migration to the beach (see also 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007).  Four of us families from three states convene for as many days as we can in one house to share fun and food and to make tons of memories.  This year we were 10 kiddos and 8 adults, and two buns in two ovens.  It truly seems better every year.   Here are a couple of photos, but then links to blogs that have already done a wonderful job of capturing the trip.

Something we didn't do enough of.  I would guess that 80% of the time when all of us were in the house and not enjoying the beach, at least one of the guys was strumming.  It was nice.

Something we did alot of: eating together.  Luckily we all have very similar preferences in the ways our families eat, so prepping meals is actually a focal activity and fun.  Here are all kids except ours (Alder is in the background, Heath likely napping) enjoying an afternoon snack before heading out again to the beach.  These kids can spend hours digging, exploring, finding critters and simply walking along enjoying wach other.  As always it was a pleasure to be around such a caring and polite group of kids.

Random fun at the dinner table.  Les taught some of the older kids how to build card houses and Heath wanted to learn too.  We also taped a giant piece of paper there for a while for some artistic free for all.  But, not as long as I might have thought.  It doesnt take long to completely fill a blank space with color with this crowd.

Joren in his heaven.

The ladies, waiting together to see how orange their henna locks turn out.

The fellas, mesmerized by a gadget.

Most of the younger gang (again except our boys, this time being stubborn about posing).  I like how Braden is displaying his finds of the morning.

This I think is funny, as it captures the beginnings of organizing to have the customary last morning group pic taken.

And somehow, we did it.

Lots more photos and reflection can be seen on the Kruidenier's, Morrison's, and Aardema-Gagnon's 

blogs.

Other fun of late:

Apple picking with some friends from school.  Followed by lots of apple eating and dehydrating apples...which make a very yummy snack.

Granna, Grandad and Elizabeth visited for Halloween again this year!  Despite the cold and rainy weather, we had a super time.  We carved pumpkins, the boys dressed up like spiders (tarantula and black widow to be precise), and even trick or treated with friends around one short loop in the neighborhood despite the rain.  They each got one peice of candy and have only asked for another peice a couple of times since then.  They know it is not something they can have often so they forget about it....and I took the bulk of our leftovers to class the following week and gave it to students.

...and some other fun tidbits:

When we finish reading Heath's book each night, he likes to stick it under his tummy before going to sleep.  We usually remove it later.

Alder has been enjoying drawing pirates.  We have numerous versions of this image lying around the house and this one seems to be the best.  Jason made it our screen saver on the house computer and Alder is proud.  Notice the "bullets" dripping out of the guns on their belts....not that we are excited about this necessarily, but it is fun to see how he draws something when he doenst really understand it.  He says, "Daddy, look, and their pistols are shooting."  And that is just fine.

The CentralEats food blog that we have started for the boys school is growing with two new posts each week on Tuesday and Saturday.  We are having fun with it and hope it grows to be a resource for parents needing healthy lunch and dinner ideas.

Drumming and Heath's general obsession with music, and pretending to be Dan Zanes.  Not sure how long this phase is gonna last, but we hope the general obsession with music sticks around.  

Alder had a science fair project for school last week.  At first, this sounds like such a pain.  These kids are too young to do this!  What a hassle.  But the school encourages total student invovlment and super simple projects.  And thankfully Jason saved the day with a simple idea he found and adapted online.  It took us only a few hours spread over a night of other stuff.  He found a recipe for bird seed cakes.  We then asked alder what he thought the birds would like to eat most, plain bird food or bird food with something else added.  He decided what the additives would  be and we make bird food cakes with (1) nothing added, (2) peanut butter added, (3) honey added, and then (4) a cake of just paper and flour.   These are all now hanging on the playground at school to see which ones get eaten first.  The honey one actually fell apart and the peanutbutter one poses an allergy hazard so only the plain and paper...oh well.  The learning is in the process and not the outcome, right?

Phew....that't it for now.